


The Little Guys

by hufflepirate



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Depression, Gen, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 20:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1317844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepirate/pseuds/hufflepirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Bruce tries to commit suicide again, Steve has something to say about it.  A lot of somethings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Guys

Steve wasn’t supposed to know about Bruce, but that didn’t mean he was going to ignore the fact that he’d overheard Sharon and Maria talking about a suicide attempt.  Not when he actually - for once - felt like he knew what to say.  It was a strange new world he lived in now, and he often felt out of place in it.  But there were some things that would never change.  And that was why he was here today, walking down the hallway of the unfamiliar hospital and trying to ignore the fact that people were staring at him, trying to figure out if they knew him or not, about to recognize him even without his uniform.

Bruce had been cloistered away in a private, well-monitored room, as if he were a normal patient at risk for suicide, as if he couldn’t turn into a 1000-pound monster the moment he decided he wanted out of here, as if the biggest worry the hospital had was just that he might try to commit suicide again and not that if he tried to commit suicide, he would Hulk out and destroy the building.  Not that Steve expected that to happen  _here_ , because Bruce was perpetually penitent over what his other half did and he’d never let the Hulk hurt others, even if it might mean release for himself.  That was the other reason he was here today.  Bruce didn’t let people get hurt.  He needed to know that losing him would hurt them.

As Steve pushed the door open, he went straight into his speech, wanting to get it out before Bruce could interrupt.  "There’s something I need to say," he announced, "Because sometimes I think people forget we’re not so different, you and I.  We’re the little guys.  Always were.  Even if I don’t look it now and you don’t look it… when the big guy takes over."

Bruce looked like he wanted to say something, but Steve wasn’t done.  "Before you tell me my whole Super Soldier thing and your Hulk aren’t the same, I know they’re not.  I  _know_  that.  But that doesn’t change what Erskine said to me the night before…before all this started.  It was right before bed, they were putting me in the machine the next day, and I asked him why he’d picked me.  I mean,  _me._ The kid who got beat up every day at school and always fought back and  _always_  got his ass kicked for it, the kid who failed every physical at every recruiting center for miles around, the kid who couldn’t run as far or lift as much or do much of anything in boot camp that the other guys could do.  The me I used to be, the me you never met."

"And he told me it was because I was  _good_.  He said the serum would amplify the person I was, said they had to pick someone good and make him better because if they picked someone bad, he’d get worse. He said a weak man knows the value of strength, and he told me a weak man understands compassion, and I believed him.  And he was right, wasn’t he?  They say I'm great, and whatever that means, wherever that comes from, Erskine was right about that.  But the thing is, he would have been right about you, too.  Because it’s in you, too.  Maybe more than it's in me.  Erskine would have seen it, because Erskine knew how to look.  And he’d have made the serum go right."

"But just because he wasn’t there and the serum was wrong and you got the worst of everything doesn’t mean he wasn’t right about what’s inside mattering.  You help kids in third world countries.  You show up when people need you.  You voluntarilyput up with  _Tony_ _._ You’re a good man.  And if the Hulk was anybody else, what chance would the rest of us have?  We’d be dead already.  We’d have been ripped apart, fighting a monster like that if he were really evil.  Could you imagine if the Hulk had happened to somebody power-hungry, or petty, or mean, or vindictive, or cruel?  Could you imagine if the Hulk was a bad man worsened instead of a good man warped?"

"So he’s a different person.  So you don’t control him completely.  So what?  Doesn’t matter.  Because this last time?  He went straight out into the woods.  He ripped up a few trees.  He did a little damage.  But you kept him away from the rest of us.   _You._   Not him.  I really believe that.  And I don’t think anybody else could do that.  I don’t think  _I_  could, and I’m supposed to be some great success, some great… something.  I’m what that serum looks like going right.  And I don’t know that I could be as good as you if it hadn’t."

"So before you try to leave us again, think about how much we need the little guy.  Think about how much we’ve  _always_  needed the little guy.  ’Cause the little guy’s the one who knows how easy it is to get trampled and run over and beat up and ignored.  And you stop that from happening just as much as I do.  Just as much as I’ve always done.  Maybe more.  So maybe we could lose the Hulk and not feel like we were missing much.  But Bruce Banner?  Never.  Too many people owe you their lives.  Too many people remember you coming along at the right time while you were in hiding and helping them, even if they never knew your name.  Too many people at SHIELD are going to count on the stuff inside your head if someone tries to make another us.  Too many people who’ve read your file look up to you."

"You make us better.  You make  _all_  of us better.  And goodness gracious, could you imagine the rest of us trying to get Tony under control if you left?  Impossible.  So don’t underestimate yourself, Bruce.  'Cause us little guys?  We matter.  We always did.  We always will.  Even more than the big guys.  I promise."

Bruce was crying.  Crying was good.  Crying meant Bruce had been listening.  Steve sat in the chair beside the bed and handed Bruce a tissue, silent for the first time since he’d come through the door.  He could only hope crying  _also_  meant Bruce believed him.  Because everything he’d said was the absolute truth.  Steve Rogers didn’t lie.  Not when he could help it.


End file.
